PR 

4168 




Oass _^- 
Book_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






•1 >• I) 

• k 



Nutnher 



Ninety -Four, pj 



1^ 



m 




BY MISS JENNIE M. BINGHAM, 



m 

i 
I 

Pi 



!■ 



III 



I! 



NEW YORK : 
PHILLIPS & HUNT. 

CINCINNATI: 
V^ALDEN & STO^A^E 



MiP|iiP^^i»tll?^ 



"\" 



The "Home Collj-ge Series" will contain one hundred short papers on 
a wide range of subjects— biograpliical, historical, scientific, literary, domes- 
tie, political, and religions. Indeed, the religious tone will characterize all 
of them. They are written for every body— for all wiiose leisure is limited, 
but who desire lous^e the minutes for the enrichment of life. 

These papers contain seeds from the best gardens in all the world of 
human knowledge, and if dropped wisely into good soil, wi'l bring forth 
harvests of beauty and value. 

They are for the young— especially for young people (and older people, 
too) who are out of the schools, who are full of '-business" and "cares," 
wiio are in danger of reading nothing, or of reading a sensational literature 
^hat is worse than nothing. 

One of these papers a week read over and over, thought and talked about 
at "odd times," will give in one year a vast fund of information, an intel- 
lectual quickening, worth even more than the mere knowledge acquii-ed, a 
tuste for solid read ng, many hours of simple and wholesome pleasiu'e, and 
ability to talk intelligently and helpfully to one's friends. 

Pastor.- may organize "Home College" classes, or "Lyceum Reading 
Unions," or "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circles," and help the 
young people to read and think and ^alk i.nd live to worthier purpose. 

A young man may have his own VtWe 'college " all by himself, read this 
spries of tracts one after the other, (there will soon be one hundred of thera 
i-eadv,) examine himself on them by the " Thought-Outline to Help the Mem^ 
ory." and thus gain knowledge, and,^what is better, a love of knowledge. 

And what a young man may do in this respect, a young woman, and both 
old men and old women, may do. 

Nkw Yokk, Jan., 18S3. . ^' ^- ^^^^^^^"^• 



Copyrijfht, 1883, by Puillifs & Hunt, Now York. 



omc College Series. Itiimber '^xmiv-fom. 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



Charlotte Bront6, so singularly gifted, living a life so sad 
that it has very appropriately been called a tragedy, was 
born April 21, 1816, at Thornton, England. When she was 
four years old the family removed to Ilaworth, a little se- 
cluded village among the hills of Yorkshire. A recent visitor 
to Haworth gives us this picture of it: *'It was on a soft, 
gray morning in the middle of August that we set forth on 
our pilgrimage. Immediately, on leaving Keighley, we began 
to toil along the road which, by an almost unbroken ascent, 
leads to Haworth. At every step we took we seemed to be 
leaving in our rear all that was pleasant or cheerful; the 
hills on either side becoming more and more destitute of 
trees, more and more brown in color, while the hedges which 
had hitherto bounded the road were exchanged for stone 
dykes, with no soft covering of moss to conceal their naked- 
ness. Had it not been for the continuous line of small 
•uses stretching along the highway, and the villages clus- 
tered on the hill-sides, the sense of desolation in the scenery 
would have been painfully oppressive. For two miles or so 
before arriving at Haworth the village is visible from the 
road, and a very eagle's eyrie it looks, perched up on the 
moors rising brown and somber behind it. A melancholy 
home, in truth, for a spirit like Charlotte Bronte's must have 
been that dreary Haworth parsonage ; no trees sheltering or 
surrounding it, and yet all pleasant views shut out; nothing 
visible from its windows but the desolate-looking, walled-in 
garden, with one stunted lilac-bush in the middle of it, and, 
beyond, the wide, crowded church-yard, encroaching more 
and more upon the grim, silent moors, crossed often by 
fitful gleams of sunlight or wreaths of mist. Nothing 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



can be more desolate and forlorn than the appearance it 
presents." 

There were six children in the family very near of an age, 
Charlotte being the third. The old woman who came to 
nurse Mrs. Bronte in her last illness tells us how at that time 
the six little creatures used to walk out hand in hand toward 
the glorious wild moors which, in after days, they loved so 
passionately; the elder ones taking care of the toddling wee 
things. They were grave and silent beyond their years, sub- 
dued, probably, by the presence of serious illness in the house. 

"You would not have known there was a child in the 
house, they were such still, noiseless, good little creatures," 
she says. "Maria, seven years old, would shut herself up in 
the children's study, with a newspaper, and be able to tell 
one every thing when she came out — debates in Parliament, 
and I don't know what all. She was as good as a mother to 
her sisters and brother. I used to think them spiritless, they 
were so different from any children I had ever seen. In part 
I set it down to a fancy Mr. Bronte had of not letting them 
have meat to eat. He thought that children should be 
brought up simply and hardily, so they had nothing but 
potatoes for their dinner; but they never seemed to wish 
for any thing else." 

They never had a childhood. The children of the parish 
were invited to the parsonage on a memorable afternoon, 
and when they had come Charlotte and her sisters were in 
despair. Their guests knew nothing but childish sports, and 
the Bronte children did not know how to play. Very grave- 
ly Charlotte asked to be taught, and the guests, instead of 
having a nice visit, devoted the time to missionary work, 
trying to teach the sedate children of the parsonage the 
plays of childhood. This was time wasted, evidently, for 
the young philosophers were only too glad to be left alone 
again with their studies and intellectual speculations. 

Of the mother of Charlotte Bronte there is little to be 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



told. Her married life was a brief one, shadowed by con- 
stant sickness. "She was a sensitively organized woman, 
and was gifted with exceeding refinement and beauty of 
mind and person." It has been surmised that she rather 
feared her irritable, excitable husband. Instances are re- 
corded showing Mr. Bronte's disposition to play the part of 
domestic tyrant. A relative of his wife had sent her a pretty 
figured dress, over which her gentle heart had, no doubt, re- 
joiced in happy and harmless vanity. Seeing that its bright- 
ne'ss gave offense to her husband she carefully put it away in 
a bureau drawer out of his sight, but evidently not out of 
his remembrance. One day, when she was lying in her 
darkened room with a nervous headache, she heard Mr. 
Bronte's footsteps in the room overhead where her treasure 
was hidden, and when next she saw her pretty gift it was a 
wreck. He had taken the scissors and cut it into shreds ! In 
like manner he disposed of some fancy-colored shoes sent his 
little daughter. 

Bishop D. W. Clark says : " Even in their early childhood, 
an unnatural, not to say diseased, activity of the brain was 
manifested in these children. They seem to have been 
utterly neglected by their father so far as any personal atten- 
tion was concerned. After the death of the mother. Miss 
Branwell, the mother's sister, became the housekeeper at the 
parsonage. She was a kind, strict, housewifely old maid, 
ever mortally afraid of catching cold, and who could not 
regard without dread the inhospitable northern moors. 

" Sad home and sad pupilage ! It was enough to derange 
even a sound and healthy temperament. The father dined by 
himself, the six children ate their potatoes by themselves, and 
either sat in their "study" — they never had a nursery — 
Avhere the eldest, just seven years old, read the newspaper 
and gleaned the political intelligence, or they wandered hand 
in hand to spend hours on the moors. Their bodies were 
played tricks with, but not their minds. The intellect was 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



left to develop as it might, under nature's influence. Feeble 
health made them precocious; each child was a phenomenon. 
They had no notion of play; they never made a noise; their 
amusements were intellectual speculation; their interests 
those of the great outer world — wars and politics, warriors 
and statesmen. 

*'It was an education fatal to that just balance of powers 
which constitutes happiness, but considering their peculiar 
organization, fostering the intellect. Nourishing food, ten- 
der maternal watchfulness, plenty of playthings, and the little 
lessons said as a task each day, would have made happier 
and better women ; they could afterward have taken their 
place in life without shyness or reserve; and the brother 
might have grown into a man, not sunk, after a boyhood of 
extraordinary promise, into a brute. But on the mere ques- 
tion of genius, we should have missed some of Currer Bell's 
most vivid scenes; there probably would have been no 
Currer Bell." 

" These sisters," says the " Christian Remembrancer," " had 
early conceived the ambition of being heard and felt beyond 
their own narrow circle. The habit of letting the imag- 
ination loose to devise plots and scenes had been theirs from 
childhood. It was the household custom among these girls 
to sew until nine o'clock at night, at which hour the aunt 
retired, and her nieces' duties for the day were considered 
done. They would then put away their work, and pace the 
long, low dining room, backward and forward, up and down 
—often with the candles extinguished for economy's sake— 
their figures glancing into the fire-light and out into the 
shadow perpetually. At this time they talked over their 
troubles and planned for the future. In after years this 
was the time for discussing together the plots of their 
novels, and reading the chapters when written. And again, 
still later, this was the time for the last surviving sister 
to walk alone round and round the desolate room." 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



When Charlotte was five years old the invalid mother 
died, and the two older daughters were sent to a boarding- 
school, where, later, Charlotte and Emily were sent to join 
them. The older sisters both died from the treatment they 
received at this school, and it woald have ended the lives of 
the younger girls had they not been recalled. As it was, 
their health was permanently injured. Charlotte never grew 
an inch after leaving. She was the smallest of women, and 
attributed her physical weakness to that dreadful experience. 
But she had a writer's revenge, and in " Jane Eyre " drew 
such a picture of the school that all the neighborhood im- 
mediately identified it, reproducing her oldest sister as Helen 
Burns. Little did the teachers dream that the frail, timid 
pupil, who submitted to discipline so quietly, would make 
their cruelty immortal. From this time she remained at home, 
caring for the three younger children, whom she loved with all 
the strong aifection of her great nature. Branwell, the only 
son, grew up to be the curse of their home. In his boyhood 
he shared his sisters' literary tastes, and was the handsomest, 
liveliest, and wittiest of them all. While the seclusion of 
their lives made the sisters amazingly shy, it made him long, 
with a sort of mania, for the world from which he was shut 
out. He soon fell into dissolute habits, became more and 
more depraved, till not one redeeming trait was left. Until 
he died, three years Liter, they lived in terror of their lives 
from his violence. 

Charlotte was the plainest of them all in personal appear- 
ance, yet so spiritual and refined in organization that she was 
a marvel to those who could not know that a great soul was 
enshrined in her little body. Her head was beautifully- 
shaped and very large, while her great brown eyes beamed 
with animation. Her features were plain; but the face, always 
so colorless, was remarkable for its power of expression. Her 
fingers were never still, and when excited she would clinch 
them together with a force that often left a bruise for days. 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



In girlhood she was not very reliable in orthodox matters; 
of religion, in its sunny aspect and beautifying influence, she 
knew little, and it was not surprising that she hated with 
girlish vim the long-faced curates who occasionally appeared 
at the parsonage table. When the question of earning her 
living came to be considered, she decided to seek a position 
as governess. Her definite acquirements, however, were few. 
She studied nature as an enthusiast, and when she tried to be 
a botanist found that she loved flowers too well to dissect 
tham. Her austere parent did not encourage music, and so 
she could not rely upon abilities in that line. Very bravely 
she entered upon the uncongenial task of teaching, and at- 
tempted a second siege after being prostrated by the first. 
Only when sickness, brought on by wretchedness, compelled 
her, did she relinquish her plan. 

Up to this time these sisters had written much that was 
tolerably successful, but found that it brought them little 
support; so Charlotte wrote to Southey for counsel. He 
gave them a cordial invitation to visit, the "Lakes," which 
the lack of funds would not allow them to do. Charlotte 
then proposed to Emily that they open a school in the par- 
sonage. To fit themselves for this they entered a school 
in Brussels. After six months they were offered positions 
there, one of which Charlotte accepted. This step was a 
mistake, as the pages of " Villette " show. Here Charlotte 
Bronte ceased to be a girl, and came, through a baptism of 
tears, to her womanhood. Her heart had been captured by 
an inmate of the school, who taught her French in return for 
lessons in English. She was the one English girl in the 
house, shut off from all society, so long among " hearts cut 
from a marble quarry," that it is not a wonder she bestowed 
all the wealth of her affection on this one friend. She had 
learned, Avhat she declares in "Jane Eyre," " Human beings 
7nust love something." Paul Emanual, the hero of " Villette," 
is a portrait of the man she loved. One day, when she was 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



in despair, despising herself for staying, but feeling too weak 
to flee, she rushed from the house and along the street, not 
caring whither she went. The bells of a church arrested her 
footsteps. She wandered in and knelt down with others on 
the stone pavement. It was an old solemn church, purpled 
by light shed through stained glass. When the others had 
gone to the confessional and returned consoled, she mechan- 
ically rose and went forward. The English girl had never 
before been in the confessional, and was ignorant of the 
formulce. She saw before her an elderly man, whose benign 
face was quickly turned toward her, when she said, half in 
apology and half in fright, "My father, I am Protestant." 
But she received such kindly counsel, after she had explained 
her lonely position and great sufferings, that she never for- 
got it. He was kind to her when she needed kindness, and 
though she never returned, as he invited her to, she pays him 
tribute in her book. Soon after she returned home, a sad 
woman now, chastened by a sorrow she never told. She 
bridged this bitter experience with active work, performed 
with merciless disregard for bodily or mental condition, and 
won her peace at last. 

The next venture these sisters made was to collect their 
poems in a volume, with the title, " Poems of Currer, Ellis, and 
Acton Bell," but it was a failure. Charlotte then offered her 
novel, " The Professor," but it was declined. The reasons as- 
signed by the publishers were " lack of startling incident " 
and " thrilling excitement." Conscious of inward strength, 
she deliberately sat down to write a book that publishers 
would publish and the popular taste approve. "Jane Eyre '' 
was begun under the additional anxiety of her father's 
threatened blindness. She had accompanied him to Man- 
chester for medical help, and here, among strangers, with 
her first story returned on her hands, she set about proving 
the view she had recently laid down to her sisters, that it 
was a mistake to make a heroine always handsome. " I will 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



prove to you that you are wrong," she said. " I will show 
you a heroine as plain and small as myself, who shall be as 
interesting as any of yours." When once in the train of the 
story she wrote continuously, and by the time she had carried 
her heroine through the interview with the insane woman 
and effected her escape from Thornfield, she had wrought 
herself into a fever. Bishop Clark says, " Certainly it was a 
dazzling power to find herself possessed of — what masculine 
force of style! what vivid life in the scenes! what daring 
originality in the situations ! what a grasp of detail ! " 

She sent her book to a London publishing house, under 
her masculine literary name. The members of the firm suc- 
cessively sat up all night reading the manuscript, and the 
letter addressed to Currer Bell, Esq., was decidedly favor- 
able. It was published within two months. But who was 
Currer Bell ? The publishers were as much in the dark as 
the world at large. Mrs. Gaskell tells us of the journey 
Charlotte and Anne took to London to prove their identity. 
How their short walk from the Chapter Coffee-House oc- 
cupied an hour because of their fear of the crossings, and 
Mr. Smith's astonishment when Charlotte put into his hands 
his own letter which had excited such a disturbance at 
Haworth parsonage a little before. 

" Where did you get this ? " he demanded, finding it hard 
to believe that a woman wrote " Jane Eyre," and that the two 
young ladies dressed in black, of slight figure and diminutive 
stature, could be the embodied Currer and Acton Bell for 
whom curiosity had been hunting so eagerly in vain. Char- 
lotte afterward spoke of the strong contrasts of that day in 
London. In the morning utter strangers, that night guests 
of people delighted to show them attentions, and in the midst 
of a distinguished audience listening^ to Jenny Lind. Dick- 
ens, then in the zenith of his great popularity, Thackeray, 
and Miss Martineau were among the many writers who 
quickly recognized the genius of the unknown author; and 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 9 

George Eliot, then a maiden of four and twenty, sympathiz- 
ing with the feeling which led this timid writer to use a 
masculine assumed name, expressed admiration for the book, 
but took issue with the writer respecting Rochester's right 
to marry again. 

Very soon the charge was widely circulated that Charlotte 
Bronte had satirized Thackeray, under the character of 
Rochester, bringing to light the sorrows of his private life. 
Her publishers immediately corrected the report, and when 
she next visited London she was introduced to Thackeray, 
who afterward paid her this tribute: "I remember the 
trembling, little frame, the little hand, the great, honest eyes. 
She gave me the impression of being a very pure, lofty, and 
high-minded person. As one thinks of that life, so noble, so 
lovely, ... of that passion for truth, ... of those nights of 
eager study, swarming fancies, invention, depression, elation, 
prayer; as one reads the necessarily incomplete, though 
most touching and admirable, history of the heart that 
throbbed in this one little frame, . . . with what awe do we 
await the to-morrow, when that which is now but darkly seen 
shall be clear. How well I remember the delight and won- 
der and pleasure with which I read ' Jane Eyre,' sent to me by 
an author whose name and sex were then alike unknown to 
me; and how, my own work pressing upon me, 1 could not, 
having taken the volume up, lay it down until it was read 
through." 

She was too shy to enjoy society, and had a great horror of 
being lionized. She wrote to a friend from London, " It was 
proposed to me to see Charles Dickens, Lady Morgan, Mad- 
ame TroUope, and some others, but I was aware that these 
introductions would bring a degree of notoriety I was not 
disposed to encounter. I declined, therefore, with thanks." 
She attended one of Thackeray's readings, and ho, proud of 
her presence, singled her out for special attention. Under 
the gaze of curious eyes that were at once turned upon 



10 CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 

her, she suffered torture; she hurried away, never to go 
again. 

Emily Bronte was the strangest of this strange family. 
Charlotte has pictured her in " Shirley," wiiich followed 
"Jane Eyre." She was once bitten by a mad dog, but came 
to her own rescue by seizing a hot iron and burning the poi- 
soned flesh, withholding the fact from the household until the 
danger was over. She wrote a book as weird and strange as 
her ow^n nature, yet showing marks of genius. She died soon 
after the brother, and Anne, the youngest sister, six months 
later. The three were buried within a year. Anne died at 
the sea-shore, whither Charlotte had taken her in hope of 
recovery. She thus pathetically describes her return to her 
desolate home. It is sad to find that vigorous pen express- 
ing as forcibly her own keen anguish as the scenes of her 
own imngination: "I got here a little before eight o'clock. 
All was clean and bright, waiting for me. Papa and the 
servants were well, and all received me with an affection 
which should have consoled. The dogs seemed in strange 
ecstasy. I am certain they regarded me as the harbinger of 
others. The dumb creatures thought, as I was returned, 
those who had been so long absent were not far behind. I 
left papa soon, and went into the dining-room; I shut the 
door. ... I tried to be glad that I was come home. . . . 
I have always been glad before . . . except once, . . . even 
then I was cheered. But this time joy was not to be the 
sensation. I felt that the house was all silent, . . . the rooms 
were empty. I remembered where the three were laid, . . . 
in what narrow, dark dwellings, . . . never more to re-appear 
on earth. So the sense of desolation and bitterness took pos- 
session of me. The agony that was to be undergone, and 
was not to be avoided, came on. I underwent it, and passed 
a dreary evening and night and a mournful to-morrow. I do 
not know how life will pass, but I certainly do feel confidence 
in Plim who has upheld me hitherto. Solitude may be 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 11 

cheered, and made endurable beyond what I can believe. 
The great trial is when evening closes and night approaches. 
At that hour w^e used to assemble in the dining-room, . . . 
we used to talk. I sat by myself; necessarily I am silent." 

She lived with her father, haunted by fears for his health 
and her own, in a solitude which sometimes became frightful 
to her, but which she could seldom be prevailed on to leave. 
She wrote to her friend: ** As for me, it would be presump- 
tuous in me to calculate on a long life, ... a truth obvious 
enough. For the rest, we are all in the hands of Him who 
apportions his gifts, health or sickness, length or brevity of 
days, as is best for the receiver: to him who has work to do, 
time will be given in which to do it; for him to whom no 
task is assigned, the season of rest will come sooner." 

A letter, written to G. II. Lewes, gives a glimpse at this 
period of her life : " It is about a year and a half since you 
wrote to me, but it seems a longer time, because, since then, 
it has been my lot to pass some black mile-stones in the jour- 
ney of life. Since then there have been intervals when I 
have ceased to care about literature and critics and fame ; 
when I have lost sight of whatever was prominent in my 
thoughts at the first publication of * Jane Eyre;' but now 
I want these things to come back vividly, if possible, con- 
sequently it was a pleasure to receive your note. I wish 
you did not think me a woman. I wish all reviewers believed 
' Currer Bell ' to be a man ; they would be more just to him. 
You will, I know, keep measuring me by some standard of 
^yllat you deem becoming to my sex ; wliere I am not what 
you consider graceful, you Avill condemn me. All mouths 
will be open against that first chapter, and that first chapter 
is true as the Bible; nor is it exceptional. Come what will, 
I cannot, when I write, think always of myself and of what 
is elegant and charming in femininity. It is not on those 
terms or with such ideas I ever took pen in hand ; and if it 
is only on such terms my writing will be tolerated, 1 shall 



12 CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 

pass away from the public and trouble it no more. Out of 
obscurity I came, to obscurity I can easily return. Standing 
afar off, I now watch to see what will become of ' Shirley.' 
My expectations are very low, and my anticipations some- 
what sad and bitter ; still I earnestly conjure you to say 
honestly what you think ; there is no consolation in flattery. 
As for condemnation, I cannot see why I should fear it; 
there is no one but myself to suffer therefrom, and both 
happiness and suffering in this life soon j)ass away." 

Now thirty-five years old, she began to write her last woik, 
" Villette." It was her best-beloved brain-child, and contains 
her finest writing. Her biographer says: "The passion of 
love was never more finely depicted than in her novels, and 
the best of her men are lovers. The womanhood of all her 
heroines we admire, but she has not sketched, in all her work, 
a proud and fond mother, happy in her home and children." 

Among the few of her father's acquaintances whom she 
knew well was Mr. Nicholls, his curate. From him came a 
proposal of marriage. For herself Charlotte preferred her 
spinster state; but she realized that her father's active life 
was drawing to its close, and believed that this kindly 
gentleman would be a pleasant companion for him as he 
gi-ew old and infirm. But, to her astonishment, he objected, 
in the most violent manner, and the obedient daughter of 
thirty-seven quietly submitted. Soon afterward, however, 
Mr. Bronte, with his usual inconsistency, proposed to recall 
Mr. Nicholls; and on a June morning, 1854, she became 
Charlotte Nicholls. She wrote to her friend: "What I taste 
of happiness is of the soberest order. Providence offers me 
this destiny. Doubtless, then, it is best for me." 

She entered into her husband's interests and occupations 
as much as she could, but found that she was unfitted for an 
active life. He cared nothing for her celebrity as an author. 
One night, when the two sat alone, listening to the wind 
sighing over the moors, she thought it a fitting time to tell 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 13 

him that she was writing another story. "If you were not 
with me I should be writing now," she said; and then she 
went to her desk, and brought from it the freshly. written 
manuscript. He heard her read it, remarked upon its open- 
ing pages as recalling " Jane Eyre," and listened to her plan 
regarding it. It was laid away that night, and never touched 
by her again. Her health, always delicate, began to fail 
rapidly, until " a wren would have starved on what she ate." 
Then she took to her bed, too weak to sit up. A wandering 
delirium came on. Wakening for an instant from this stupor 
of intelligence, she saw her liusband's sad face, and caught 
the sound of some murmured words of prayer that God would 
spare her. 

" O ! " she whispered, " I am not going to die, am I ? He 
will not se])arate us; we have been so happy." 

Early on Saturday morning, March 31, 1855, the solemn 
tolling of Ha worth Church bell spoke forth the fact of her 
death to the villagers, who had known her from a child, and 
whose hearts shivered wdthin them, as they thought of the 
two sitting desolate and alone in the old gray house. 

Some years after Mr. Bronte's death Grace Greenwood 
visited Haworth, and thus writes of the old church: "Never 
shall I forget my feelings on entering! First a chill from 
the senseless dampness of the building ; then a sense of ter- 
rible oppression. I have been into many old churches, but 
never one which seemed so frightfully close and unwholesome. 
It had about it a strange odor of mortal decay, as though ex- 
halations were coming up, through the very stones, from the 
charnel-house beneath. 1 only wondered that the delicate 
Bronte sisters lived so long as they did, having to sit through 
three long services every Sunday in that dreadful place. The 
family are all buried in the chancel, one above another. 
Here, above her dead sisters, Charlotte knelt, during the 
ceremony of marriage. We were shown the register of her 
marriage, with her name written in a trembling hand." 



14 CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 

Miss Martineau found something inexpressibly affecting in 
this frail little creature, who, under such a heavy weight of 
suffering and solitude, had done such wonderful things. She 
says of Charlotte Bronte: "In her vocation she had, in ad- 
dition to the deep intuitions of a gifted woman, the strength 
of a man, the patience of a hero, and the conscientiousness of 
a saint." 

She wrote the matchless love-story of the nge, dealing witli 
one of the most complex of social problems, and taught her 
sister-women the way to convert mental power into riches, 
obstacles into opportunities. 

Here is her idea of the source of happiness, as coming from 
one of her characters: "No mockery in this world ever 
sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate hap- 
piness. What does such advice mean ? Happiness is not a 
potato, to be planted and tilled. Happiness is a glory, shin- 
ing far down upon us out of heaven. She is a divine dew 
which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels 
gently dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and 
golden fruitage of Paradise." 

She thus quaintly gives expression to her democratic spirit: 
"Pedigree and social position are my third-class lodgers, to 
whom can be assigned only the small sitting-room and little 
back bedroom." 

Laura Holloway, a recent biographer of Charlotte Bronte, 
says: "There never was a character more susceptible to, and 
more influenced by, personal environment than that of Char- 
lotte Bronte. If her lot had fallen in pleasant places, with 
genial company of other children, and the guiding influence 
of those great minds that learned too late to love her, she 
would have shown less of the wild-flower grown in the wil- 
derness th^n she did. She could not, then, have deemed 
Rochester's imperiousness heroic, or even manly; she would 
have seen humanity in its truest phases, less in the lightning 
and storm, and more in the still, small voice that sings in 



CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 15 

every true heart. The wonder is that the heai-t of Jane 
Eyre is so unscarred by hardship and neglect, by misunder- 
standing and the fatality of suffering from no self-inflicted 
wound, as it is. As she teaches her pupil her own childhood 
seems to be renewed by the gracious and in\ isible touch of a 
divine Healer's hand. A smile of happier thought breaks 
over the patient brow; the iron that has entered into her 
soul no longer pains her; years of heart-ache and distress 
vanish like the early mist. Such is the resuscitative vital 
power of noble natures only. 

" In studying this strange life we cannot help wondering at 
the surprising courage exhibited in it, or at the gray shadows 
of solitude that rested over it. Only those 

* who have knowledge . . . 
How dreary 'tis for women to sit still 
On winter nights, by solitary fires, 
And hear the nations praising them far off,' 

could understand her life, or appreciate the perj^etual loneli- 
ness of her whose name had reached even the camp-fires on 
our Western wilds, and been echoed over the snow-clad 
mountain-peaks of the distant Ural chain ! Of all the 
women of England of the present century, the two who may 
be ranked as her worthiest successors, as writers, are Mrs. 
Browning and George Eliot. The life-histories of both these 
women are of equal interest with their authorship. They all 
drew, out of sorrow first, and then out of love, the fullness 
and richness of their lives, and wrote from their hearts, as 
well as their minds. 

*' All over both continents the name of Charlotte Bronte 
is venerated. Those who once enjoyed the priceless priv- 
ilege of looking into her pure, frank face, touching in its 
weariness, sublime in its patient, trustful expression, whose 
eyes were ever looking yearningly into the future to find the 
promises of the past realized, whose lips were tightly closed 



16 CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 

on all the revealings of her own heart, could never doubt 
the faith that sustained her. Her religion was as broad as. 
her conception of life was earnest and true." 



[THOTJGnT-OUTLINE TO HELP THE MEMORY.] 

Date of birth ? Description of Haworth ? Peculiarities of childhood ? Mrs. 
Bronte? Mr. Bronte's disposition? What Bishop Clark says? The early lit- 
erary habits of the sistere ? Boarding-school experience, and how made immor- 
tal ? The brother's career? 

Charlotte's personal appearance? Teaching? Experience at Brussels in the 
old church ? Poems ? " The Professor ? " Why declined ? 

Circumstances of writing "Jane Eyre?" How received by London publish- 
ing houses ? Her nom de plume? How she was received by London society ? 
What Thackeray says ? Loneliness? " Shirley " and " Villette ? " Married? 
What was date of death? What Miss Martineau says? What Mi-s. Holloway 
says? 



Oiai-i^XJT'.A.TJQTJ.A. TEISSl'T'-IBOOI^S. 



iVo. '. Biblical Exploration. A Con- 
densed Manual on How to Study tiie 
Bible. By J. H. Vincent, D.D. Full 
aud rich 10 

yo. 2. Studies of the Stars. A Tockct 

- Guide to the Science of Astronomy. 
By H. W. Warren, D.D 10 

l\<). 3. Bible Studies for Little People. 
By Kcv. B. T. Vincent . . 10 

Xo. 4. English History. By J. II. Vin- 
cent, D.D 10 

So. 5. Greek History. By J. H. Vin- 
cent, D.D 10 

\o. 6. Greek Literature. By A. D. 
Vail, D.D 20 

Nu. 7. Memorial Days of the Chautau- 
qua Literary and Scientific Circle lo 

No. 8. What Noted Men Think of the 
Bible. By L. T. Townsend, D.D 10 

No. 9. William Cullen Bryant 10 

No. 10. What is Education? By Wm. 
F. Phelps, A.M 10 

No. 11. Socrates. By Prof. W. F. Phelps, 
A.M 10 

No. 12. Pestalozzi. By Prof, W. F. 
Piielps A.M 10 

No. 13. Anglo-Saxor. By Prof, Albert 
S. Cook 20 

Nn. 14. Horace M:inn. By Prof. Wm. 
F. Phelp^i, A.M 10 

No. 15. Froebcl. By Prof. Wm. F. 
Phelp':, A.M 10 

No. 16. Roman History. By J. H. Vin- 
cent, D.D 10 

N). 17. Roger .-X-scliam and John Sturm. 
Glimpses of Education in the Six- 
teenth Century. By Prof. Wm. F. 
Phelps, A.M 10 

No. IS. Cliristian Evidences. By J. H. 
Vincent, D.D , 10 



No. 19. The Book of Books. By J. .M. 

Freeman, D.D 10 

No. 20. The Chautauqua Hand-Book. 

By J. H. Vincent, D.D....' 10 

No. 21. American History. By J. L. 

Hurlbut, A.M :. 10 

No. 22. Biblical Biology. By Picv. J. 

H. Wythe. A.M., M.D 10 

No. 23. English Literature. By Prof. 

J. H. Gilmore 20 

No. 24. Canadian History. By James 

L. Hughes 10 

No. 25. Self-Education, By Joseph Al- 

den, D.D,, LL.D 10 

No. 26. The Tabernacle. By Rev. John 

C.Hill 10 

No. 27. Readings from Ancient Classics. 10 
No. 28. Manners and Customs of Bible 

Times. By J. M. Freeman, D.D 10 

No. 29. Man's Antiquity and Language. 

By M. S. Terry, D.D 10 

No. 30. The World of Misisions. By 

Henry K. Carroll 10 

No. 31. What Noted Men Think of 

Christ. By L. T. Townsend, D.D.... 10 
No. 32. A Brief Outline of the History 

Qf Art. By Miss Julia B. De Forest . 10 
No. 33. Elihu Burritt: "The Learned 

Blacksmith." By Charles Norlhend. 10 
No, 34, Asiatic History : China, Core.a, 

Japan. By Rev, Wm. Elliot Griffis.. 1© 
No. 35. Outlines o( General History. 

By J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 

No. 36. Assembly Bible Outlines. By 

J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 

No. 37. Assembly Normal Outlines. By 

J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 

No. 38. The Life of Christ. By Rev. 

J. L. Hurlbut, M.A 10 

No. 39. The Sunda\-School Normal 

Class. By J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 



Published by PHILLIPS & HUNT, 805 Broadway, New York. 



-^ 



TRACTS 



NOW 



1. Thomas Carlyle. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

2. William Wordsworth. By Daniel 

Wise, D.D. 

3. Egypt. By J. I. Boswell. 

4. Henry Wordsworth Longfellowr. 

By Daniel Wise. D.D 

5. Rome. By [. I. Boswell. 

6. England. By J. I. Boswell. 

7. The Sun. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 

8. W^ashington Irving. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

9. Political Economy. By G. M. Steele, 

D.D. 

10. Art in Egypt. By Edward A. Rand. 

11. Greece. By J. I. Boswell. 

12. Christ as a Teacher. By Bishop E. 

Thomson. 

13. George Herbert. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

14. Daniel the Uncompromising Young 

Man. By C. H. Payne, D.D. 155. 

15. The Moon. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 56. 

16. The Rain. By Miss Carrie E. Den- [57. 



READY, 

No. 
39 



49. 



HComo Oollog'o Sorios- 

Price, each, 5 cents. Per 100, for cash, $3 50. 

The " Home College Series" will contain short papers on a wide range of subjects — 
biographical, historical, scientific, literary, domestic, political, and religious. Indeed, the 
religious tone will characterize all of them. They are written for every body— for all 
whose leisure is limited, but who desire to use the minutes for the enrichment of life. 

Diamonds and other Precious 

Stones. By Alfred Taylor. 
Memory Practice. 
Gold and Silver. By Alfred Taylor. 
Meteors. Bv C. M. Westlake, M.S. 
Aerolites. Bv C. M. Westlake, M.S. 
France. By j. I. Boswell. 
Euphrates Valley. By J. I. Boswell. 
United States. By J. I. Boswell. 
The Ocean. By Miss Carrie R. Den- 

nen. 
Tw^o \Veeks in the Yosemite and 

Vicinity. By J. M. Buckley, D.D. 
Keep Good Company. By Samuel 

Smiles. 
Ten Days in Switzerland. By H. B. 

Ridgaway. D.D. 
Art in the Far East. By E. A. Rand. 
Readings from Cowper. 
Plant Life. By Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 
Words. By Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 
Readings from Oliver Goldsmith. 
Art in Greece. Part I. 
Art in Italy. Part I. 
Art in Germany. 
Art in France. 
Art in England. 
Art in America. 
Readings from Tennyson. 
Readings from Milton. Part i. 
Thomas Chalmers. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 
Rufus Choate. 
The Temperance Movement versus 

The Liquor System. 
Germany. By J. I. Boswell. 
Readings from Milton. Part II. 
Reading and Readers. By H. C. 

Farrar, A.B. 
The Cary Sisters. By Miss Jennie M. 

Bingham. 
A Few Facts about Chemistry, By 

Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 
A Few Facts about Geology. By 

Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 
A Few Facts about Zoology. By 

Mrs. V. C Phoebus. 
Hugh Miller. By Mrs. V. C. Phoebus. 
Daniel Webster. By Dr. C. Adams. 
The World of Science. 
Comets. By C. M. Westlake, M.S. 
Art in Greece. Part II. 
Art in Italy. Part II. 
Art in Land of Saracens. 
Art in Northern Europe. Part I. 
Art in Northern Europe, Part II. 
Art in Western Asia. By E. C. 

Rand. 



nen. 

17. Joseph Addison. By Daniel Wise, 

D.D. 

18. Edmund Spenser. By Daniel Wise, 



D.D 

19. China and Japan. By J. I. Boswell. 

20. The Planets. By C. M. Westlake, 

M.S. 

21. William Hickling Prescott. By 

Daniel Wise, D.D. 

22. Wise Sayings of the Common 

Folk. 

23. W^illiam Shakespeare. By Daniel 68 

Wise, D.D. 69 

24. Geometry. 

25. The Stars. By C. M. Westlake. M.S 

26. John Milton. By Daniel Wise, D.D. 

27. Penmanship. 

28. Housekeeper's Guide 



Themistocles and Pericles. (From 

Plutarch.) 
Alexander. (From Plutarch.) 
Coriolanus and Maximus. 

Plutarch.) 
Demosthenes and Alcibiades 

Plutarch.) 
The Gracchi. (From Plutarch.) 
Caesar and Cicero. (From Plutarch.) 
Palestine, By J I. Boswell. 

36. Readings from William Words- 

worth. 

37. The Watch and the Clock. By Al- 

fred Taylor. 

38. A Set of Tools. By Alfred Taylor. 



70. 



7I' 



72. 



73- 
(From 

74- 
(From 75. 

76. 

77- 

78. 

79- 
80. 
81. 
82. 



Published by Phillips & Hunt, JVew York ; V/alden & Stowe, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatnnent Date: March 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATIOr 

111 Thomson Park Drive 



